The Toronto International Film Festival has just announced the first fifty or so films from its 2011 line-up today, including new works by Alexander Payne, the Duplass Brothers, Sarah Polley, and Madonna, and many, many others. In the process, TIFF also released a crop of brand-new photos from several films from the schedule. Hit the jump for new photos from the following:

Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

Reboot Ralph has been an unknown quantity on Disney’s slate for the past year. Announced in 2010 as a May 2013 release, the film was bumped up to November 2 2012 earlier this year. But all we really knew was the title, and the fact that it was a reworked version of an old Disney project called Joe Jump, which was about “an outdated video game character who’s been left behind by the march of technology.”

Well, Reboot Ralph has now become Wreck-It Ralph, which is now about “an arcade game Bad Guy determined to prove he can be a Good Guy.” The first cast has been announced, too: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch. A few more details are after the break. Read More »

Despite an impressive, eclectic ensemble cast of comedic and dramatic actors, Peep World failed to generate much enthusiasm when it premiered at TIFF last year, garnering some middling reviews from a selectfewoutlets and otherwise not making much of an impact. Nevertheless, IFC picked up the film for distribution and have now released an official trailer.

The film centers around a dysfunctional Jewish family that turns on each other when its youngest member writes a bestselling book exposing all their most intimate secrets. Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson and Ben Schwartz comprise the four main siblings, and they’re accompanied by such talents as Kate Mara, Taraji P. Henson, Judy Greer and Ron Rifkin as their father. Barry W. Blaustein (The Ringer) directs. Watch the trailer after the break. Read More »

I wasn’t planning to write about Gallery1988’s first annual “Is This Thing On” art show as it really has little connection to movies or television (or so I thought… the above piece featuring Judd Apatow mashed-up with the infamous Star Trek Tribbles episode is a fine example of this). The show, co-sponsored by FunnyOrDie, features over 100 artists, each creating pieces that are portraits of their favorite funny people, both beloved comics of yesteryear and emerging superstars.

We’ve all seen roasts on Comedy Central. The Roasts of Bob Saget, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner and David Hasselhoff come to mind as humorous events where a very famous person sits on stage and less famous, but more funny, people stand there and make awful, awful jokes about them. Most of the time though, I watch those and think, “I wish I cared about this person more.” This week, a roast happened film fans can care about.

Quentin Tarantino got roasted at the Friar’s Club in New York City on Wednesday and was ripped to shreds by the likes of friends Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Eli Roth and Edgar Wright as well as more traditional roast participants like Jeffrey Ross, Sarah Silverman, Kathy Griffin and Richard Beltzer just to name a select few. The star studded event isn’t scheduled to air on television anytime soon, so we’ve compiled a bunch of the best jokes made at the event and even found a video that’ll give you an idea of the fun vibe. Read More »

Let’s skip the formalities, shall we? Sarah Silverman is co-starring in Sarah Polley‘s film Take This Waltz, and for the first time in her career, she will be appearing naked. As in: full-frontal nudity. The context of this scene is unknown, but her first line in the film is, “I look in the mirror, and I wanna f**k myself.” If there were ever an appropriate time for Silverman to bare all for the screen, it sounds like this is it.

(Ladies, in case you haven’t already, you may want to pass on this article.) Read More »

Sarah Polley is putting together a film she’ll direct as a follow-up to the sad and terrific Away From Her, and she’s just landed Sarah Silverman to appear alongside Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams. Take This Waltz is about “a young woman (Williams) whose struggles with infidelity leads her to the realization that she may be addicted to the honeymoon period of her relationships.”

Rogen’s character is married to Williams; Silverman plays Rogen’s sister. Based on what we’ve heard of the script, which Polley also wrote, this will probably be tipped slightly more to the dramatic side of the scale, though I know it has significant funny aspects. I’m always happy to see comediennes play drama, so I hope Silverman’s role isn’t purely intended as comic relief. [Variety]

After the break, the Kennedys come to life (again) and Richard Gere partners up with Topher Grace. Read More »

Now playing in NY and LA is St. John of Las Vegas, the debut feature of writer-director Hue Rhodes. The picture gives Steve Buscemi a too-rare leading role as John Alighieri, a man with a gambling problem who is sent to investigate an insurance claim on the outskirts of the Nevada casino capital. Also amongst the cast are Romany Malco, Sarah Silverman and Peter Dinklage.

The film is pricked with references to Dante’s Inferno, though certainly has it’s own narrative which requires no knowledge of the Divine Comedy to understand – think how the Coen Bros. and Homer blended into O Brother Where Art Thou. And whereas the Coens’ film stood on the shoulders of Preston Sturgess, the equivalent influence on St. John would appear likely to be Ozu or Milos Forman.

After the break you can read my edited transcript of some of what Hue has said to me in our conversations over the last few weeks, sharing some of his thoughts on both this movie specifically and films and filmmaking in general.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?